San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN) - After more than 800,000 Puerto Rican voters said they want the island to become the 51st U.S. state, the White House is calling on lawmakers to take action.

"Congress should now study the results closely, and provide the people of Puerto Rico with a clear path forward that lays out the means by which Puerto Ricans themselves can determine their own status," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters this week.

San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN) - After more than 800,000 Puerto Rican voters said they want the island to become the 51st U.S. state, the White House is calling on lawmakers to take action.

"Congress should now study the results closely, and provide the people of Puerto Rico with a clear path forward that lays out the means by which Puerto Ricans themselves can determine their own status," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters this week.

(CNN) - In an overshadowed Election Day contest, Puerto Ricans voted in favor of statehood in a nonbinding referendum, marking the first time such an initiative garnered a majority.

Puerto Ricans were asked about their desires in two parts. First, by a 54% to 46% margin, voters rejected their current status as a U.S. commonwealth. In a separate question, 61% chose statehood as the alternative, compared with 33% for the semi-autonomous "sovereign free association" and 6% for outright independence.

(CNN) - The issue of whether English should be a requirement for Puerto Rico to be considered for statehood lasted for a third day - two days ahead of the U.S. territory's Republican presidential primary - and provided Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum with opportunities to take shots at each other.

The back and forth began Wendesday, when Santorum said while campaigning in Puerto Rico that English should be the principal language in Puerto Rico before it could gain statehood. Puerto Rico will vote on a statehood referendum in November.

San Juan, Puerto Rico (CNN) - Minutes after his plane touched down on a Puerto Rican airport tarmac, Mitt Romney said he would not require the territory to make English its official language as a requirement for statehood.

"I don't have preconditions that I would impose" if Puerto Ricans voted to become the nation's 51st state, Romney told members of the media Friday, addressing the issue for the first time in person. English and Spanish are already the dual official languages on the island.FULL POST